Left In Lowell

The Boston Herald: always good for a scandal, right?

Not so much with Killer Coke.

You’d think it’d be perfect Herald material…a gubernatorial candidate’s top advisors may have been caught red-handed dealing with a fact-twisting smear merchant who’s under investigation for violating campaign finance laws (not to mention the bounds of good taste).

However, while the Globe was all over it like a cheap suit (all right, they weren’t, but crack investigative op-ed columnist Joan Vennochi was), the Herald stayed very mum.

Could that be because their old pal David Guarino, now communications director for Reilly, once the Herald’s chief political reporter, was the one caught in the scandal regarding (heck, was the sender of) said email hoping to “map out shadow plans for our friend at Killer Coke”?

We report, you decide…well, (via BMG), the Herald decided to report a bit about the meeting yesterday between the unions fielding the complaint, and the Office of Campaign and Political Finance.

No mention in the article of Guarino specifically, of course.

But once again, Blue Mass Group goes further than the mainstream papers:

I spoke with Mike Grunko, president of SEIU Local 509 (which has endorsed Patrick for Governor), after the meeting. He said that the OCPF officials “seemed to acknowledge” that, as we suspected, the fliers printed and distributed by Killer Coke (and apparently paid for by Corporate Campaign, Inc.) constitute “express advocacy” rather than the much less heavily regulated “issue advocacy.” Grunko also had the impression that OCPF would be looking at Corporate Campaign, Inc.’s books and financial records to see where the money to fund Killer Coke’s anti-Patrick project came from.

Hat tip on the Guarino connection to a very alert friend.